248 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



afterwards described by Eyre in his narrative of one of 

 the most dreadful journeys ever taken by land. At 

 Fowler's Bay, the point at which the Dutch gave up their 

 survey of the coastline, Flinders found " the same ridge 

 of barren land." In the islands he, like the Dutch, found 

 good anchorage, but he found no other good thing. The 

 islands were made of rocks and sand and chalk and " arid 

 sterility." The thermometer showed 98 in the shade 

 and 125 in the sand. No wonder that the Councillor 

 Extraordinary, who visited the islands in January, thought 

 the time had come to sail home. One more vo'yage had 

 resulted in " nothing worth mentioning." 

 The Vyanen In 1628 an important discovery was made on the North- 

 West coast. A ship named Vyanen was driven ashore 

 1628. in about 21. " She was forced to throw overboard 

 eight or ten lasts of pepper, and a quantity of copper, 

 upon which, through God's mercy, she got off again, with- 

 out further damage." The Dutch then sailed two hundred 

 miles along the coast, but came home without obtaining 

 any considerable information respecting the situation 

 and condition of this vast land, it only having been found 

 that it has barren and dangerous coasts, green fertile 

 fields, and exceedingly black barbarian inhabitants." 

 The new discovery is recorded in the chart of Gerritz 

 of " 1618," which was apparently brought up to date 

 in 1628. To the North-East of Willem's River, is drawn 

 a detached stretch of coastline with the legend " G. F de 

 Witsland, discovered 1628." We have evidence 'that 

 a man named Gerrit Frederikszoon de Witt sailed on 

 board the Vyanen. Opposite the coast are a number 

 of islands which are identified w r ith " the chain of islands 

 of which the Monte Bello and the Barrow islands are 

 the principal, and certain islands of the Dampier 

 Archipelago." 



But the coast that was always interesting to the Dutch 

 was the coast of " the land of D'Eendracht." They had 

 made this a regular landmark on their way from the 

 Cape to Batavia ; and the difficulty was to see it in about 

 26 without running on the almost invisible Abrolhos in 



